Wedge issues?

Hotline’s Blogometer renews its suggestion that conservative blogs “are not as socially conservative as the larger GOP base.” I’m not sure how socially conservative “the larger GOP base” is, but there’s at least this grain of truth in Blogmeter’s theory — many conservative blogs (including Power Line) are operated by folks who were roused into blogging by 9/11, not social issues. Thus, while most of us are social conservatives, we tend to be less profoundly so than those for whom social issues are paramount. And as a group, we may be more likely than some in the “base” to forgive a Giuliani or a Romney for past and even present deviations from social conservative principles.